Infernal Affairs II Review

I was watching Infernal Affairs II yesterday and I kept getting mixed up between several of the characters. I literally had to pause the film and try and intentionally study the faces of the two main characters so I could know who was who. The plot is very complex and every single character has brown skin and black hair. It was therefore a little difficult to keep track of each character.

I think this could be due to the following factors:

1. Subtitles

The film was subtitled and because of this a lot of my attention was diverted to the bottom of the screen as I read the dialogue instead of paying attention to the actor's faces. It's happened to me before when watching foreign films, I usually only recognise the eccentrically dressed gangster who wears a white suit and sunglasses because I'm too engrossed in reading the subtitles.

2. Foreign Actors

Not many people truly appreciate the fact that we can tag name recognition to the characters within our favourite films. It's easier to recognize a character if you know that he's being played by Mark Wahlberg. Even if you don't know the actors name you can still know him as 'The dude from Forest Gump.' and be able to instantly recognise him when he pops up in a scene.

With foreign films with the exception of a few particular looking characters, I couldn't pick any others from a line up. Could it be because they had no achieved celebrity status in my home country?

I experience a similar sense of ambiguity when I'm watching an old western. If it's not Clint Eastwood I usually don't recognise the actor and can't tell one character from another. It also doesn't help when every single guy in an Western has an dark leathery face and dresses like a cowboy.

In regards to the review, while I didn't hate Infernal Affairs II, I didn't care too much for it. I would advise on skipping this one if you don't have much time on your hands. Nothing really happens in it that didn't happen in the first movie. There is a 'rat' or 'mole' in both the police and the triads. There are twists and turns in the plot but they are mainly logical and not really jaw dropping. Some people get killed, then a guy turns on the gang, then a cop leaks information, etc, etc. then it ends.

Overall Infernal Affairs II is logically tight and the narrative moves along at a fine pace but it lacks in generating an emotional response.